The owners are Quaker businessmen named Bildad and Peleg. They are both strict owners and tell Ishmael about Captain Ahab. Although the Quakers were pacifists and whaling was an extremely violent occupation, Melville writes that Bildad, had probably“ long since come to the sage and sensible conclusion that a man’s religion is one thing, and this practical world quite another.”Thus they sign both Ishmael and Queequeg, a non-Christian who is and excellent harpooner to the crew of the Pequod.